I was hoping for a bit of advice about how to go about introducing accessibility testing into my company.
We have a website that we use as marketing for our main product but also for the general public which generates revenue through adverts.
I noticed that there are a few accessibility issues but no one seems to take me seriously when I raise them and they are closed in Jira. I’m sure there are many more that I haven’t noticed. One of them is as simply the fact there are “alt” attributes missing from some of the images.
How important is accessibility testing?
How can I then explain this to my manager when my tickets are kicked back?
I want to be able to present the facts to them instead of just my personal opinion.
Hello @froberts this is a common, but very sad, fact in a lot of companies. There are many ways to argue a case for accessibility and I’ve spoken about this very subject at Testing Atelier in Leeds, Agile and Automation Days in Poland and later in the year I’ll be at Nordic Testing Days.
There are more and more legal reasons to take accessibility seriously but the absolute number one reason is, it is the right thing to do for everyone. A site that is accessible works better on older devices, slower networks, one handed, in sunlight etc. etc. etc.
I have a number of resources, tools and links I’ve shared with people including Sky in Leeds recently so if you feel comfortable drop me a mail at adystokes@sky.com and I’ll happily send them over.
You might also want to point them to this recent BBC article (again US based but it won’t be long until you see these here) where legally compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is becoming a basic requirement. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46894463
From what I’ve read it was a combination of tabbing order, things not reachable or able to be selected, and important text not being read by the screen reader. I’ve also seen quotes of $45,000 or £38,000 to fix it.
Wow, a small world.
Spending 40K to fix a website is small potatoes, glad this article can make testers aware of a wider responsibility to the project risk awareness. Engage the risk question at every level. I do suspect there are some UK guidelines papers you can use to drive standards now - if not, I can get hold of some links I’ll bet. I recall seeing something about this on twitter last year…
I think this is a good example of why you should build accessibility into the design of a site at the outset rather than trying to bolt bits on at the end to try and tick a box, or coming up with crap excuses for not doing it - seen both of those in the past and also seen senior management having a panic when an angry end-user waved the Disability Discrimination Act at them…
Looks like Dominos were trying the excuses route and it’s backfired on them very, very badly - they would do well to look at what it’s cost them in terms of legal costs and reputational damage as compared to the cost of making the site properly accessible at the outset as I suspect there will be a very, very big difference!